Poultry production operations generate significant quantities of animal waste, mainly manure. Vegetation chemically burns from direct contact with excrements containing ammonia. Poultry manure can contaminate the surface or groundwater resources through leaching and runoff of contaminants. Runoff from factory farms can go into nearby rivers, lakes and results in fish-kills, dead-zones, closed beaches, and long-term damage to fisheries/ecosystems. In many areas manure causes dangerous contamination of the drinking water due to nitrates. Poultry manure also contains bacteria and pathogens which may also potentially affect soil, water, and food resources. Lack of appropriate treating methods and the bad odor of chicken excrements has created a social problem. Due to increased pressures from society to reduce the impact on the environment, several methods of manure management were developed. Most of them are not efficient, not scalable and not economical.
Composting requires several months, a significant amount of land or other space, and a lot labor for managing compost piles such as mixing, turning etc. which leads to high labor costs. Loss of ammonia occurs during the composting. Some nutrients may be leached due to exposure to rainfall. Furthermore, compost can attract insects, and disease-producing organisms may not be adequately controlled. Another problem with composting is odor nuisances.
Treating chicken manure with high temperatures requires significant power consumption and results in loss of organic matter. Furthermore, because dried chicken excrements have not gone through the biological decomposition stage, they cannot contribute to humus. It is known that humus is the organic matter that has broken down into a stable substance that resists further decomposition.
Other methods require either additional components such as different acids, ferments, enzymes, bio-catalysts, accelerating agents, worms etc. or sophisticated and expensive equipment, which must be specially designed and constructed. Often additional actions such as elevated pressure, mechanical compression, extra heating, agitation, exposure to radiation (including but not limited to super high frequency) etc. of raw materials is required.
In many methods aeration is uneven. Some parts of the mass are excessively aerated and some parts are not aerated enough. Both conditions cannot provide the optimum development of aerobic bacteria. Also some known methods use plastic pipes or metal tubes with holes for aeration. The maintenance for such a construction is not easy. If the holes are clogged by the mass then it becomes difficult to clean them.
The population of the world is consuming more and more food. But despite the increasing use of chemical fertilizers, agricultural crop yield is gradually and constantly decreasing. It has been found that the exclusive and prolonged use of chemical fertilizer is harmful to the soil's ability to restore its fertility due to depleted humus. For good soil conditions the organic matter should be retained. Organic fertilizers contribute to the fertility of the soil by adding organic matter and nutrients. Chemical fertilizer does not have this organic matter.